Help your parent keep what they built. Without taking over.
A free dashboard for the one who’s helping: whether you could act if you had to, the dates on their side, and roughly whether the money lasts. No logins, no account numbers. Eight questions, about three minutes.
No names, no account numbers, no logins. Estimates are enough. You pay nothing.
Your key dates
Example (1948)
How can I help my parent with retirement money without taking it over?
Three things sit upstream of any money decision: whether anyone can act for your parent if they can’t, whether the dates on their side are being met, and roughly whether the money lasts. The dashboard puts those on one screen — from estimates, without logins — and shows what is still open.
You’ll be the one they call. Make sure you can act when they do.
You’re not trying to run their money. You’re trying to make sure that if something happens, you can step in — and that nothing with a date is being missed.
“They don’t listen to me — whatever I know.”
Advice from a child lands as a child’s advice. A screen with the rule and its source lands differently.
“If something happens, can I even act?”
Without a durable power of attorney, a bank will not discuss your parent’s accounts with you. Being their only child makes no difference.
“I don’t know where things even are.”
Which institutions, where the will is, whether there’s a health care directive. Most families find out the hard way.
“Is a required withdrawal being missed?”
Once it starts, one is owed every year by December 31. A missed one carries a 25% excise tax — 10% if corrected within two years.
“If I push and it goes wrong, I get the blame.”
From a sibling, or from yourself. A shared picture — who handles what, agreed — is how that risk gets smaller.
“I’m doing my own retirement and theirs at once.”
Which is why it starts with your own eight questions. Your timeline is the frame; your parent’s affairs come first on it.
Five things upstream of the money. And then the money.
No logins, no account numbers. Estimates are enough.
Whether you could act.
Five checks: a durable power of attorney, a list of where the accounts are, where the will is, a health care directive, and whether you and your siblings have agreed who handles what. The screen says "N of 5" — and what each missing one would cost you later.
The dates on their side.
Required withdrawals, every year once they start; Medicare’s windows; the first withdrawal’s special deadline. In order, with the rule behind each.
Roughly whether the money lasts.
An estimate from what your parent receives, has saved and spends — rough numbers are fine — with the assumptions shown.
Your own picture, too.
Your dates, your money, your timeline. Helping a parent is one of the triggers that moves your own plans; the dashboard holds both.
“A drawer of letters you’ve never opened, a conversation you keep postponing, and the quiet fear that one day you’ll need to act and won’t be able to.”
Five checks you can see, the dates you can watch, and a picture you can put in front of your parent — and your siblings — without it being your opinion.
How it treats your parent
- Named only as "your parent" — no name, no account numbers
- Nothing is sent to anyone unless your parent asks
- Estimates, not statements
- Who handles what is a question, not an assumption
Three steps. No logins needed.
Eight questions — one tick for your parent.
Date of birth, filing status, state, income, savings, spending. Then one tick: "I am here because of a parent." About three minutes, no account.
01See their affairs first.
The five checks, the dates on their side, and roughly whether the money lasts — from a year of birth and rough numbers.
02Bring it to the table — or come back later.
Show the screen to your parent or a sibling. Change one answer when something changes.
03Here is what the screen holds.
Illustrative example: a daughter in Illinois, 49, married filing jointly, helping a parent of 82. Dates are set by law and dates of birth; the figures on your own dashboard come from your answers.
Each of these needs your parent to hand something over. This doesn’t.
Keep them. The dashboard is where you find out what’s open — before you need any of them.
Each of these needs your parent to hand something over. This doesn’t.
Keep them. The dashboard is where you find out what’s open — before you need any of them.
Goes as well as the last conversation did.
A screen with the rule and its source — not your opinion.
Talks to the client. You are not the client.
What you can check without being the client: the five checks, the dates, the rough picture.
A document. Not a picture of what else is missing.
The POA as one of five checks, with what each gap would cost later.
Everyone has a different memory of who handles what.
"Who handles what" as a question with an answer on the screen.
Need your parent’s logins — and their consent to share them.
Nothing linked. Year of birth and rough numbers are enough.
A stranger your parent has to trust because you found them.
Optional, later, and only if your parent asks.
The dashboard is free
You never owe Frank Finly anything. The dashboard, the dates, the picture — yours to keep.
01Advisors pay for introductions
If your parent wants a person to walk through it, advisors in our network pay for the introduction — only when your parent asks. Advisors may charge their own fees.
02No account, no email required
Your answers are saved in this browser. If you want them on another device, add an email and we will keep them for you. Nothing else is needed.
03What’s the catch? None.
The dashboard is free for you. Advisors in our network pay Frank Finly for introductions — only when you ask for one. You never owe us anything.
We show what’s open. Your parent decides.
The hardest part isn’t the money — it’s being allowed to help. A power of attorney can only be signed while your parent still can. The dashboard puts that and four other checks on one screen, so the conversation has something to point at.
The rules are quoted, not paraphrased.
Every age, threshold and deadline comes from current IRS and Social Security rules, with the tax year named next to the figure.
It shows what applies, not what to do.
Frank Finly is not a registered investment adviser and does not give personal advice. The dashboard shows your parent’s picture from estimates. When a decision needs a person, that is your parent’s request to make.
Your parent’s details stay on this device.
Nothing goes to any firm unless your parent asks to talk to an advisor. They are described only as "your parent" — no name, no account numbers.
Access to your parent’s affairs
Illustrative example
Beneficiary Designations explained →What the rules say. For the one who’s helping.
Four reads that match the dates on your parent’s calendar.
Questions? Answers.
Find out whether you could act. Before you have to.
Your own eight questions, then your parent’s year of birth and rough numbers. About three minutes, no account, no logins.
See where things stand→